Unstructured data refers to computerized information that either does not have a data structure or has one that is not easily usable by a computer program. Unstructured data may thus be contrasted with information stored in a field-based format in databases or annotated (for example, semantically tagged) data in electronic documents. Meanwhile, research shows that a great percentage of all potentially usable business information originates in unstructured form, such as in emails, web pages, financial reports, etc.
Some existing systems are capable of extracting, from unstructured data sources, information that has been identified as associated with predetermined categories. Some systems even permit processing unstructured data containing text in a foreign language. The currently available computerized solutions, however, are still limited, such as, for example, with respect to the ability to generate a structured data set suitable for automated reporting.